Many types of textiles are used in our every-day life. When electronics are unobtrusively integrated into these textiles to create electronic textiles, new application fields emerge. One such example of a new application is light-emitting textiles, and other examples include textile-based sensing systems, wearable electronics etc.
For these new applications, the very special properties of a textile, such as the conformability and/or stretchability that can be achieved with a textile are advantageous. However, the very same properties as well as irregularities in the textile resulting from the manufacturing process translate to challenges faced in the process of devising a process for manufacturing an electronic textile. For example, it has turned out to be difficult to mount electronic components on a textile substrate in a reliable and cost-efficient manner.
Various methods for mounting electronic components to a textile substrate have been proposed. However, most of these methods are labor intensive and are not suitable for mass-production, at least not without extensive investment in new types of manufacturing equipment.
WO-2010/033902 discloses one example of a method for mounting electronic components to a textile substrate on an industrial scale. According to this method, a moving textile substrate is temporarily clamped between clamps to stabilize a site for mounting an electronic component. Subsequently, the electronic component, in a special two-part package, is snapped in place, and thereafter the electronic component may be more permanently and reliably joined to the textile substrate with epoxy.
Although appearing to be able to handle a high production rate, the method disclosed by WO-2010/033902 seems to require a special type of electronic component package and utilizes a connection technique which is not a standard in the electronics manufacturing industry. Accordingly, substantial investment would be required to use the method of WO-2010/033902 and it would be possible to use only custom made component packages, which increases the cost of the electronic textile.